The moments we have left
by Clueingforluce
Summary: The Doctor misses his and River's anniversary and promises to do better next year, but time might have its own plans. Slight angsty ending.
1. Chapter 1

Burying her face behind a rather large book, River skilfully hid a smirk as her husband came bounding in, looking flustered as he'd spent the last three hours looking for her. She'd asked the Tardis to hide the door until he was well and truly in a state as payback, even though he didn't know what he had done wrong and was still trying to work out why she was ignoring him.

The mad fool had forgotten their anniversary. It wasn't like she expected him to keep up with dates and timelines what with him being all over the place –especially with her –but their wedding was something different to the rest of the points in time they'd shared together. It was the one point where they were on the right track, where their timelines had become synced before heading off away from each other once more. It was the one moment in time where they could look into each other's eyes and knew who they were staring at, not having to worry about spoilers or secrets. That meant something to River, and so when he'd turned up (he was the right Doctor, the one who was married to her, she'd made sure of it) on this precious day without his usual romantic gestures –usually kisses, flowers or some fancy item if he was being generous –and hadn't mentioned their anniversary once, she'd realized that he had forgotten and had become deflated, her perfect mood going from that to downright mad in a second.

So she'd stalked off, refusing to talk to him and locking herself in the library whilst he worked out why she thought he was such an idiot.

Now, standing before her, he looked absolutely crushed and she felt her heart twinge slightly at those big brown eyes staring sadly down at her. She had to remind herself to stay strong as if she let him off the hook, he wouldn't learn anything. Honestly, it was like taking care of a child at times. Instead she turned the pages of her book delicately, refusing to look at him whilst he stood before her, hopping from foot to foot and wringing his hands in apprehension.

"River, are you okay?" A stutter between each word notified his nervousness, "Is something wrong?"

Pulling her book down so that her eyes were peeping over the top, River raised an eyebrow and merely asked, "do you know what day it is?"

Her tone made him gulp. It was that 'you better not answer wrongly or else' tone. The dangerous one that usually got him a slap around the face or worse.

"Um…Monday?" He winced as her eyes narrowed and backed away a bit. River calmly put the book down and stood up, walked over to him and straightened his bow tie with a dangerous smile.

"Very good Sweetie. Now can you remember the date and, say, why that date might be a teensy bit important?" The last words were exaggerated, making him shake slightly and he looked down to where she usually had her gun strapped to her waist just to check that it wasn't there. It was.

"Think dear, what did we do last year on this date?"

"Oh, we went to Abrax where the white beaches were." His eyes were lit up, clearly pleased with himself that he knew the answer. When she only gave him a hard smile in return, his face dropped and she could see that he was trying to think hard on why this was so important and why it was making her mad. It only took him a moment until something clicked and his eyes widened fearfully.

"River?" He stammered whilst she smiled up at him sweetly.

"Yes, my love?"

"I think I should run now…"

"Yes dear," she answered calmly, her face showing no emotion, "I think you should."

Over the next two hours, all that was heard in the Tardis was the sound of running feet and the yelps of The Doctor as he dodged the shots fired from his angry wife's gun, occasionally shouting things like "River, I'm sorry!" and, "I know you still love me, you wouldn't want to kill me just yet!"

After she'd finally finished (leaving him cowering under the console with the ends of his hair slightly scorched) and had teleported away without a word, he jumped into action and began visiting all the best places to get her the most fabulous gifts –ancient art work, valuable and rare gems and architectural pieces, jewelry, luscious dresses. He was prepared to grovel for a long time. He even arrived early to pick her up for a journey of her choice (she dragged him around various shopping malls for a full week) and bought her anything she asked for, even carrying the humongous amount of bags they ended up with at the end of every day.

He did all of this and more and at the end of the week when they were sitting side by side in the library, him eyeing her cautiously to see if he was off the hook yet, she leaned over and kissed him lovingly on the lips.

"Thank you Sweetie, for a fabulous week. I have to say though, if you plan on doing this every time you forget our anniversary, then it's definitely worth it." She laughed as he shook his head.

"I don't think my hair will thank me for that. Some of it's still burnt!" He pouted childishly before his face softened, "I am sorry River. I've been so caught up with my own travels –it's selfish of me, I know –and I forgot about the date completely."

"You're getting old dear, it's to be expected." Snuggling under his arm, she grinned up at him adoringly, feeling both amused and guilty when she spotted a singed bit of hair dangling over his eyebrow. As she closed her eyes however, she missed the morose look in her direction, his eyes lingering on her face.

To him though, he hadn't just forgot their anniversary; he had missed out on an important day with her. Ever since they had gotten married, every time he saw her she would know less about him and it was very rare that he met up with a version of her that coincided with him. Like now for instance. It was purely luck that he'd got to spend a whole week with the same River, but couldn't stop being angry at himself for missing one extremely important moment in time with her. He didn't know how long they had left, and here he was wasting what time they had.

Next year he would do something meaningful to show just how much he loved her. Everything would be bigger and better and he would wow her with his surprises. It would be a perfect day, everything his River deserved. He silently promised her that he would keep his word.

"I have something to tell you by the way, Sweetie." She mumbled sleepily with her eyes still closed, breaking him from his musings.

"I was contacted a week ago by an old professor from the University, there's a fantastic opportunity going to join a team and visit an abandoned planet. No one knows where everyone went and maybe we can discover the reason. Isn't that fascinating?"

The Doctor went cold and tried not to stiffen up, "where is this place? I mean, what's the planet called?"

"Oh you'd love it," she carried on, oblivious to his heartbroken expression. "It's called The Library. The whole planet is full of every book ever written, just imagine!"

He didn't need to. If he closed his eyes now he would be able to remember every corner and detail of that place. Remember the faces of every member of the team who died that day. Remember her scream as she sacrificed herself for him, for them all.

He wanted to scream himself, cry out and hold her close, never letting her go. They hadn't had much time together and it wasn't fair and he cursed the universe for doing this to him. Instead though, he lent down and pressed a kiss to her forehead, trying to smile convincingly so that she wouldn't notice or question his sudden change of demeanor.

"It sounds wonderful dear."

For the rest of the night he held her tighter, gave her more kisses and stared into her eyes for longer, because in his hearts he knew. He wouldn't be taking her to just anywhere next Anniversary. He would be taking her to Darillium.

I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it to turn out this way, I actually wanted it to be happy and funny, but this kind of happened…I do hope you liked it either way!

Please review and feel free to read the rest of my stories, love you all!


	2. Chapter 2

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